HERBIE! Journeys on our narrowboat and the trials and tribulations of maintaining her.

Monday, September 10, 2012

New shower or new boat?

Writing this is literally a pain. I’m getting used to a new pair of specs and this time they are making my eyes really sore. Enough of that whingeing, yesterday a load of people pushed their wheel chairs flat out for 26 miles and didn’t grumble.

On to the main topic. It’s all Adam’s fault.

When we crewed for Adam on Briar Rose earlier this year, we had the opportunity to use his shower. Now it has spoiled us, because it is so much better than ours on Herbie. Difference 1 - Herbie’s shower is one of those hip bath types, which although you can stand up,not so easy as a proper walk in cubicle and takes up nearly twice the floor space in the bathroom.

Difference 2 – Adam has a proper thermostatic mixer tap. We have a hot tap and a cold tap, usually resulting in loud screams from the alternate freezing and scalding you get when trying to get the balance right.

So it’s either a new boat or a new shower. Hmmm. Sounds like the excuse we need for a new boat.

We do keep drooling over nice boats we see on broker websites. How about a nice tug with a proper engine in a proper engine room, or a comfortable 60 footer with space for a pulman dinette- and a proper shower. The trouble is when we do occasionally look over one, it’s never quite right and we seem glad to get back to dear old Herbie. Plus there is one small matter to contend with. LOADSAMONEY! Our financial adviser barely controls his anger whenever we mention we might one day get a better boat. He goes quite red in the face and seems to equate it with financial lunacy. No soul that man.

So for now at any rate we’ll give Herbie a treat and organise her a new shower with a general bathroom makeover. Many might regard this as a DiY project, but Kath knows my limits, so we shall resort to professional intervention. I suspect it would cost less than a broker would charge just to try to sell Herbie let alone an upgrade to a better boat.

Can anyone recommend a good boat fitter within striking distance of Crick?